Vastu-shastra (Vol. I: Hindu Science of Architecture; Vol. II: Hindu Canons of Iconography and Painting) v1.c56.44

v1.c56.44

With all due humility I must say that the down right condemnation is uncalled for. Dr. Bhattacharya (cf. ibid 270) while explaining that term, 'Vimāna', has accepted the meaning of 'Chariot', on the authority of the earliest known lexicographer, Amara Again the learned Doctor while elaborating the two principal schools of Architecture—Drāviḍa Vāstu-vidyā and the Nāgara Vāstu-vidyā, has himself located Brahmā among the foremost earliest writers on the Drāviḍa Architecture the complete list being Brahmā, Śakra, Śukra, Maya, Bhṛgu, Bṛhaspati, Nārada, Nagnajit and Agastya (206). This is what the S. S. says: that the building models of chariots i.e. Vimāna, very common in the early architecture as founded by Brahmā and later expounded by Maya, were adopted as the models for the temple architecture known as Prāsādas. The cent per cent correctness of this simple truth should not be doubted on the premises laid down before.